By Christine Ntim

Last edition, we talked about this reality: Your personal brand is either a business — or a burnout risk.

Today, I want to go one level deeper.

Because once people accept that their personal brand should make money, they immediately ask the wrong next questions:

“Should I create a course or offer consulting?”
“How do I package my expertise?”
“What should I sell first?”

Those questions sound practical — but they’re out of order.

And that’s why so many brilliant people end up with:

• Offers that don’t sell
• Inconsistent monthly income
• Endless rebuilding
• Or expertise trapped in low-paying work

Let’s fix that.

Why People Get Expertise Packaging Wrong (Even When They’re Good Offers)

Most people try to package their expertise before answering three critical questions:

• Who already trusts me enough to pay?
• What decision does my expertise actually help someone make?
• How does money move through my brand consistently?

Without those answers, packaging becomes guesswork.

That’s why you see:

• Courses built with no buyers
• Consulting offers priced too low
• Experts switching offers every 3–6 months
• Income spikes followed by silence

The issue isn’t the offer. It’s the absence of a business model for the personal brand.

The ROI On Your Expertise

Expertise alone does not create income.

Income is created when:

• Your experience is positioned around a specific outcome
• Your offer fits the buyer’s readiness level
• Your delivery matches how trust is built in your market

Most people package what they know.

They should be packaging what others are already trying to solve — using their knowledge as the vehicle.

That distinction changes everything.

Expertise alone does not create income.

Income is created when:

• Your experience is positioned around a specific outcome
• Your offer fits the buyer’s readiness level
• Your delivery matches how trust is built in your market

Most people package what they know.

They should be packaging what others are already trying to solve — using their knowledge as the vehicle.

That distinction changes everything.

The Hidden Reason Courses Fail (And Why Consulting Burns People Out)

Let’s demystify this.

Courses fail when:

• The audience doesn’t yet know they have a problem
• The transformation requires accountability, not information
• Trust hasn’t been built long enough
• The buyer needs confidence more than content

Consulting burns people out when:

• There’s no clear scope or repeatable framework
• Pricing is tied to time, not outcomes
• Delivery is customized every time
• There’s no path to leverage or scale

Neither model is bad.

Using them without a business model is

What a Personal Brand Business Model Actually Does

A real business model answers questions before you create an offer:

How do people discover me?
How do they move from awareness to trust?
What is the first paid decision they make with me?
What happens after that sale?
How does income repeat — monthly, quarterly, annually?

When you answer those, packaging becomes obvious.

You stop asking “What should I sell?”
And start asking “What role does this offer play?”

That’s the shift.

The Practical Framework (Use This)
Here’s a simplified way to think about it — and this is where most people go wrong:

Your Experience = Raw Material

Your story, skills, career, and results are inputs, not products.

Your Audience’s Decision = The Product

People don’t buy expertise.
They buy clarity, confidence, speed, or certainty around a decision.

Your Offer = The Delivery Mechanism

Consulting, courses, workshops, retainers — these are containers, not strategies.

Your Business Model = The Engine

This determines:

• What sells first
• What sells next
• What repeats
• What scales
• What you stop offering

Without the engine, you’re just rearranging containers.

The Question to Sit With

Before you create or repackage anything, ask yourself this:

“If someone paid me today, what happens next?”

If the answer is unclear, inconsistent, or exhausting — that’s the real issue to solve.

• Not your content.
  Not your visibility.
  Not your credibility.

Your structure.

Join Me Live: Consulting or Course?

If this edition resonated, I’m inviting you to a live, practical masterclass where I’ll walk you through this step by step:

Live Masterclass | February 25, 2026 | 11am EST | 

Consulting or Course? How to Package Your Expertise for Predictable Monthly Cashflow in 2026 — and Why Most Personal Brands Get It Wrong

In this session, I’ll break down:

• How to decide consulting vs course based on your expertise
• The 5-part framework I use to design offers that actually sell
• Why most people struggle with monthly cashflow — even with great visibility
• How to structure your first (or next) offer for speed, confidence, and repeatability

You’ll leave knowing exactly what to package, how to price it, and what role it plays in your business model.

Save your seat and join us live

If you’ve ever said “I know I’m good at what I do — I just can’t seem to monetize it consistently,” this session was built for you.

Clarity creates momentum.
Structure creates income.

With intention,

Christine Ntim

Keynote Speaker | Featured in Forbes, Inc, Essence, TEDx, 90+ Media Outlets

CEO Global Startup Ecosystem | Founder Personal Brand Business School 

(W) www.christinentim.com  | (E) [email protected] | Linkedin @christinentim 

P.S. Post the session I’m hosting an indepth workshop for my private Personal Brand Business School community, “Personal Brand Digital Product Launch Workshop: Package, launch, and sell your expertise — even if you’re starting from scratch ”. You can join here (It’s invite only right now).